Visiting Japan? NTT East Giving Tourists 2 Weeks of Free Wi-FiNTT East Giving Tourists Free Internet (sorry, West)AkihabaraNews.com | January 23, 2014Japan's seeing record numbers of tourists these days, and in the lead-up to the 2020 Olympics, even greater numbers are expected - and wanted.Free, publicly accessible wi-fi, something tourists with the means to tour Japan would both expect and appreciate, is actually rather rare. Sometimes you get lucky and find a wi-fi cafe, but that's a very uncommon sometimes. Or, if wi-fi exists, it rarely works and/or requires some kind of special song and dance or membership to access...more...

Free WiFi in Tokyo is still unimpossible, but maybe Osaka Bob can shame Tokyo into better coverage...

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Aboutfuckingtime! Osaka becomes first Japanese city to embrace free wi-fi RocketNews24 / 2014feb03Osaka has just announced the launch of Osaka Free Wi-fi, a program that brings free wi-fi to locations throughout the city, as part of its effort to position itself as an international gateway to rival Tokyo.Users only have to provide a valid email address to use the service, which is compatible with Apple, Android and Windows devices. Logging in will get you 30 minutes of free wi-fi and there is no limit on the number of times you can log in. However, some locations only offer a “lite” version of the service, which gives you 15 minutes of wi-fi for up to an hour per day.Participants in the program include the Nankai, Kintetsu and Keihan railways, major tourist attractions, and a handful of hotels, shops and restaurants, all easily accessible for the average tourist. A complete list is available on the website. More...

What I meant is that for the 9-to-5'ers cyberspooks catching traffic from municipal wifi or your asahi net connection require the same paperwork, remember at&t room 641a. I have the same distrust for both, except that at least municipal wifi don't have my name and billing address.

Meanwhile, I can go tomorrow with a fake wifi access point called "Osaka official free wifi" making me look like the real deal, redirect all traffic and steal lmail, logins, pass and more.

Russell wrote:Looking at the list, I am not impressed by the coverage.Just a few railway lines, some tourist destinations, and a few hotels.Don't most hotels have free Wifi anyways?!?

Only business hotels in Japan have free WiFi. Upscale places charge for WiFi (or Ethernet) access. Japan's hatred of public WiFi has finally come back and bit them on the ass. "Lack-of-Public-WiFi" has consistently ranked in the top 3 problems that surveyed tourists have in Japan for the past five years.

Wi-Fi blitz planned for OlympicsJapan Times | June 13, 2014The government unveiled plans Thursday to provide more foreign visitors with speedy wireless Internet access before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.It will promote the spread of free Wi-Fi hot spots but also “encourage” the purchase of Japanese SIM cards for incompatible smartphones bought overseas.The plan also envisages a cut in international roaming charges, said Yoko Kamikawa, state secretary for communications.A panel of telecommunication company representatives will be set up as early as this summer to discuss ways of developing public Wi-Fi networks and simplifying user access.A panel of experts will meanwhile discuss how to make and market the Japanese SIM cards needed to provide full service to foreign smartphones.The plan also seeks to lower the connection fees charged by Japanese and foreign telecommunications providers so foreigners can more easily use free calling apps.More...

I think the hotel internet access deal has changed over the last 3 years or so. For example, here's the Hotel Okura Tokyo's page about it, and the in-room ethernet and building Wi-Fi is free, I believe.

As an extra service, they are offering rental portable wi-fi routers for 1890 yen per day (which can obviously be used outside the hotel too), but that's hardly surprising.

I noticed it at my station...keeps dropping so I get a phone that is struggling to use Wi-Fi instead of LTE, slow or no incoming messages and my outgoing messages are stuck in an endless "sending" situation. That being said, often have the same issue with Docomo's "hot spots" on my Docomo keitai

It hardly ever works. No signal, a Can't Connect response, or even just Nothing. The one in Tokyo Station is particularly hilarious. I highly recommend it for Japan's The Besters!!! looking to get over their rose coloured honeymoon phase.

The airport ones can also be particularly charming; not so much in an Olde World style as a Last Century one.

So, a question: 1) is it simply that everybody has leapfrogged the need for public free Wifi and have a dedicated service, 2) is it that nobody needs the internet, or 3) do they really, really, really just not even have a besquidgeon of an inkling of understanding about the multiplier benefits of efficiently provided public infrastructure?

So, back in Soy Land, but my trusty cell phone rental buddy has given up on the business, so I need a phone. Even simple cell phone rental gets expensive for my needs, so I need to explore my options:

1) Softbak claims they will sell frequent visitors to Japan a Simple Style Prepaid Smart or cell phone, but I thought prepaid required a residence permit of some sort. Has anybody heard anything about this lately? The shop at Haneda International claims they provide the service but I was far too gone when I arrived Saturday and didn't have time this morning before hopping to Okinawa.

2) I am toying with the idea of buying a smartphone sans a contract or carrier service and using it as a mobile Wifi device. Kakaku.com has some for about 13,000 yen, which is eminently doable. Can I buy something without a contract (for which I am ineligible anyways) and just use it for Wifi and those calling apps like Line or WTF they have out there?

I will phone around and ask but I thought I'd ask for any tidbits on offer.

kurogane wrote:So, back in Soy Land, but my trusty cell phone rental buddy has given up on the business, so I need a phone. Even simple cell phone rental gets expensive for my needs, so I need to explore my options:

1) Softbak claims they will sell frequent visitors to Japan a Simple Style Prepaid Smart or cell phone, but I thought prepaid required a residence permit of some sort. Has anybody heard anything about this lately? The shop at Haneda International claims they provide the service but I was far too gone when I arrived Saturday and didn't have time this morning before hopping to Okinawa.

2) I am toying with the idea of buying a smartphone sans a contract or carrier service and using it as a mobile Wifi device. Kakaku.com has some for about 13,000 yen, which is eminently doable. Can I buy something without a contract (for which I am ineligible anyways) and just use it for Wifi and those calling apps like Line or WTF they have out there?

I will phone around and ask but I thought I'd ask for any tidbits on offer.

Tanks in advance.

Portable WiFi router and use your own phone. Get a Skype number and you can get/receive calls to it. (Or just add some Skype credit if you only need to make outgoing calls) I don't even bother with either when I'm stateside....between LINE, Facebook, etc., all you need is a data connection usually.